Stainless trailer???

[cormorant]

http://yachthub.com/index.html?page=list/ed.html?de=46010

Saw this boat advertised with a stainless trailer - surely they mean aliminium ??

Enough issues with Ally trailers without the weight and problems of the way stainless work hardens or have I got it wrong?

There seems to be some cheap boats going at the minute as well.

[BGG]

Must be one big trailer! And what would you tow it with?

[Noelm]

there have been numerous attempts at making stainless trailers, but there is a few drawbacks, stainless will rust badly were it is welded, it needs to be "pickled" and to do a trailer is just not worth the effort, also most stainless will get brittle at the weld and it does not have a very high "sheering strength" as in a stainless bolt will break way before a mild steel one of the same size if it is exposed to some sort of shearing action, like in two pieces of flat bar bolted together and then moved as in like a scissor action! OK in a straight pull and so on though (or use a bigger bolt)

[cormorant]

Pretty much along my thoughts Noel and it is a road going job as well so lots of stress in something that size. They do have those portable pickling machines but not sure it is the same as a tank

That would be one heavy rig on the road .

[tunaticer]

They have developed two grades of Stainless Steel that are very similar to the work hardening characteristics of steel however the corrosion protection is not the best being equivalent to grade 304. Nearly double the price however so that alone kills the prospect of a stainless trailer. It will not be too far off in the future though when titanium could be an expensive but viable alternative to steel or alloy.

In saying that though, a 3 or 4mm plate stainless steel hull in about a 6m to 7m length would certainly be comparable with fibreglass for ride as it will have equivalent weight and possibly 3 times the structural integrity. Often wondered about a properly desinged SS boat in comparison to alloy would stack up. Would have to overcome the harshness of the ride and probably alleviate a lot of the pitching alloy can give.

[Charlie]

I've seen a few ss trailers getting about owned by ski or wake board owners, if you have the money your can certainly have one.
They are also quite common in camper trailers in South Africa where a lot of stainless is used in the mining industry,these are cheap grades I'm not sure how they handle the welding issues

[Angla]

Yes I have seen one under a high priced Ski boat. The owner found out all of the cons of sharp edges with a gash down to the bone while washing a raw edge on the trailer.

Chris

[Whitey81]

A stainless trailer? ramp trailer ok. Road trailer no. The flex and vibration will cause it to crack. There are a lot of exotic grades of s/s made but you could probably buy 10 trailers for the price of it. So stainless steel trailer you would have to be crazy!!!!

[Steboe]

Galvanized I beam trailers would last a long time, I think a lot of trailers made from square and rectangular tube rust out from the inside.

Ken

[TonyM]

I had a S/S trailer years ago under a 4.5 tinny - it was brilliant and no rust ever, including at the welds, had no cracking problems either although I understand that's a greater possibility than with mild steel

Would cost a packet to make I imagine, I got it second hand and imagine it was made by someone with access to materials at work - e.g. I know a lot of stuff used to roll out of bhp from time to time :-X

[Noelm]

spot on there Tony, I know of two stainless trailers built as "foreign orders" at BHP, but both cracked at the welds after a faily short time.

[TonyM]

spot on there Tony, I know of two stainless trailers built as "foreign orders" at BHP, but both cracked at the welds after a faily short time.

They used to do great wet weather gear too ;D

[Noelm]

funny you should say that, I was just sorting out some raincoats that I have hidden on the Boat for emergencies, and 2 of them are BHP branded. No idea were/who I got them from though!

[boatboy72]

I'm into trailers and i see a lot of polised stainless trailers under the yank boats they love em

[oldboot]

Certianly there are issues with stanless as there are with any material... but if the trailer is build with an understanding of the problems and appropoiate methods... I can not see why a stanless trailer would not be a wonderfull thing.


There are always people with plenty of money or access the materials it low cost.


I'd believe it, and would not be a bit surprised.....afterall they are making them out of plastic.

cheers

[Noelm]

fully agree that a good Stainless trailer can be built, but it seems that almost all the ones we see (read cheap) are not constructed as they should be and fail.

[cormorant]

My thoughts have been that to build a trailer from stainless it has to be over- engineered to basically take out flex and do large gussetts etc on welds. Same as the earlier ally ones before knowledge was gained on how to do it better. Comes down to quality of welds and the control of load at that point. Gets to a pont where on a larger trailer the weight is silly. I understand that on a small trailer you can easilly over - engineer things as the weight of boat is light and transport streses are low but the trailer in the link is a tri- axle with a heavy lump on it. That trailer if properly engineered would have to weight near twice as much as a heav duty steel gal one.

It is very hard to determin at what point a bit of stainless has been worked hard by the load on it and at what point it will fail. With steel trailers it has been shown over the years what to expect from a particular grade and shape of stel after galvanising and even after 10 years of exposure and 10% of rust. More experience , more data in the real world. I don't doubt some people have the expertise but the Joe - blow local welder caný just use the same section and design as he would for mild steel if doing a stainless one - that is the worry.

Just how much over- engineering on a stainless trailer would make it safe ?

Still not sure how anything stainless that is heavilly loaded will go as having seen stuff that I though was pretty well engineered in industrial situations not sure I wan't to be towing it on the road at 5t.

[oldboot]

Yeh... it is typical of so many things.
They try to make something different, but expect to use the same methods and expect them to work.

My expectation is that and optimumly endineered stanless ( and aluminium and plastic for that matter) trailer would look very different to your typical mild steel one.

Lets face it trailer manufacture isn't the pinical of metalwork engineering or the boilermakers art............99% of trailers are crude things built to a price.

My expectation is that an optimuly designed stanless trailer would be made out of shaped and folded stock....more of a sheet metal exercise.. rather than but welding of sections of extrusion

There are things you can do with stanless that you can not or would not do with mild steel, particularly if you were galvanisisng it.

cheers